As the pre-war era came to a close, coachbuilding shops in the United States had all but become a memory, and Detroit’s automakers could hardly be bothered to craft bespoke cars as they tooled up for war. Only somebody of incomparable status – somebody like the former King of England – could get such a car built, and that car, a 1941 Cadillac custom limousine known as The Duchess, will soon head to auction.

After Britain’s King Edward the VIII abdicated the throne in December 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorced American socialite, the couple hobnobbed with the world’s elite, setting new standards for fashion and enjoying a privileged life in the days before the Second World War. Among their circle of friends was GM’s Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., who had Harley Earl’s Art and Color Section at GM design the limousine for the couple’s 1941 visit to New York City.

As RM’s auction description notes, The Duchess came to symbolize the end of an era, more or less marking the transition from the Cadillac of old (where setting the world standard for luxury automobiles was paramount) to the brand’s post-war years, where the focus was production over coachbuilding or bespoke customization. The Duchess was a truly unique Cadillac, and shared no body panels with other models of the day. All metal panels were formed by hand to fit the 136-inch wheelbase chassis, and the flow of the front fenders would go on to influence the design of automakers ranging from Buick to Rolls-Royce.

Special touches adorned the car, including a “W.E.” monogram and crown on the rear doors, a gold-plated Cadillac hood ornament, stainless steel drip rails and rocker panel moldings, body-colored headlight and fog light trim rings, and the deletion of the typical Cadillac badging. Inside, The Duchess received custom broadcloth upholstery, which was also used for the headliner and sun visors. Color-matched Wilton wool carpeting covered the floors, while walnut wood was used for ornamentation throughout the cabin. Luxury touches included brushed stainless steel jewelry cases (lined with velvet, of course), lighted mirrors that tucked into the car’s cabinetry, three cigar lighters, a humidor, a pipe rack and two ash trays. The car included hydraulically-operated power windows and an electrically operated center divider for privacy, and the rear radio (with buttons pre-set to New York radio stations) was trimmed in copper and included a vacuum-powered antenna. Underhood, the car’s 346-cu.in. L-head V-8 was hand-built with the greatest attention to detail, reportedly using hand-selected and matched components, then mated to a Hydra-Matic automatic transmission. As a result, the car is said to be so quiet at its 400 RPM idle speed that fan noise is the predominant sound.

The Duke of Windsor paid $14,000 for the unique Cadillac, which was more than three times the cost of a production Cadillac Series 75 Fleetwood seven-passenger sedan. Kept at New York’s Waldorf Astoria, where the Duke and Duchess maintained a suite, the car remained in their possession until 1952, when the Duke traded it in on a new Cadillac Series 75 and a Buick station wagon. Since then, The Duchess has seen just four owners, the latest of whom, Morgan Murphy, bought it in 2009 and gave it a full restoration.

The Duchess will be offered without reserve, and RM predicts a selling price between $500,000 and $800,000. RM’s Art of the Automobile auction will take place November 21 in the Sotheby’s showroom in New York City. For more information, visit RMAuctions.com.

UPDATE (21.November 2013): The Duchess bid up to $415,000 but didn’t sell.

When I first saw the pictures, it seemed to have a striking similarity to a 1941 series 62 sedan. The Cads from 1941 through 1946 are, in my opinion, some of the prettiest cars ever to come out of Detroit. God forbid I should ever have to choose between a 1941 Series 60 and a 1941 Lincoln Continental coupe. That’s the sort of choice that could drive you to drink.

I wonder if there were any cigarette burns in this limo. The Duke and Duchess were chain smokers.

I had a 41 Cadillac 62 sedan. It was a bare bones model with a plain steering wheel. I paid a collector (F.A. Jones, Rochester N.Y. Ford dealer) $750 for it in 1967, and sold it in 1969 to a Rochester man (Edwin Allen-Allen Candy Co.) for $850. Often wondered what happened to it.

It’s certainly a very good looking automobile but, unless I missed it (which is entirely possible), the name of the coachbuilder responsible for all the custom sheet metal isn’t mentioned in either this post or the text of the auction listing.

Was it done in-house by Fisher body or at a specialist in the U.S. or the U.K.? Those fadeaway fenders are to die for.

After I acquired a 56 Fleetwood and restored it I became a fan of big Cadillac cars, like this one, though I cannot explain why. I never grew up with one, I didn’t know anyone who owned one, I was unaware of their existence and importance until I began reading about them.

Then, in the unrelenting deluge that was 2013 Hershey I came across no less than 3 Fleetwoods of this vintage. Mind you I’m aware the subject car is a one-off coach built creation deserving of adoration, but the run of the mill Fleetwood 75 of the 1940′s is no slouch. The stainless steel running boards and mahogany woodwork set it apart from a lesser Cadillac. It has the presence of say, Abraham Lincoln.

It is not hard to imagine being shuttled to the club in one of these in arm chair comfort and tomb-like solitude while waving and watching in rain on the little people.

The one I spotted in the car corral was a 1949 model that took a bit of arguing among my posse of old car know-it-alls to straighten out. If you possessed some of the useless information I do you would for example know that the 1949 Fleetwood did not move to the new for 49 Cadillac body until 1950 although it did receive the 331 OHV V8 (similarly to 1965′s Fleetwood 75 that retained the 64 styling until 66).

He wanted $25,000 for the car.

I’d have bought it but for the real problem of garaging it. It won’t fit. Thankfully.

Not to question your vast automotive knowledge, (I’ve read many of your posts on here and learned many things from them), but I believe the newly designed Cadillac body (with the exception of the Fleetwood), debuted on the 1948 models and not on the ’49s. Please correct me if I’m mistaken about this.

it’s stunning, restrained, and elegant. I had an Uncle who bought a Cadillac every two years and I rode and/or drove a few of them. There’s nothing like it. Then I drove a 2004 and thought I was in a Chevrolet Citation. Or a computer. The car is cheap and vulgar. Very sad.

It’s interesting that Cadillac in its production models throughout the 1940s never used the pontoon fenders that cut all the way to the rear fender as in the Duchess car. Buick did, however, use this stunning styling motif in 1942 through 1948.

I believe this is the car that was auctioned off years ago by the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, MI. Tom Monaghan, owner of Dominos Pizza outbid Imperial Palace for about $250,000. If this is the same car there was a crest or coat of arms that attached to the center of the windshield that they auctioned off separately. Unbielevably, Monaghan lost the auction for the crest that went with this car.

It’s a shame that Alvin McCauley at Packard didn’t take more interest in Cadillac’s V8 and automatic transmission.in 1941. Packard was so far behind the curve regarding V8s and auto transmissions it wasn’t funny. It did finally catch up with Packard in 1954+ when their offerings just were not selling and the result of too conservative thinking and reliance on their prior reputation did them in.

Remember that Packard’s troubles began after the depression when they trotted out lower end lower priced cars thinking that would do the trick.

Meanwhile Cadillac did the same, but was smart enough not to dilute its brand equity and used the LaSalle name.

Packard buyers wanted exclusivity and were not interested in a brand that lesser folks would be seen driving. That hurt immeasurably.

And coterminous with that error was the reality that Packard was running out of money and Chrysler bought its body supplier.

We see similar phenomenon with Mercedes Benz moving down market (See the new CLA & A class cars) and Porsche and now Bentley moving laterally with SUV’s. Its about survival in a transitory world where fads and socio-economic realties often trump tradition and engineering excellence.

I now know how the GM Holden FX/FJ got its body style, my first thought(when I saw the picture) was that this was a custom FX/FJ. I know that a Holden exec “found” a discarded design exercise to use as the first Oz Holden.

This Caddy would of been quite a coup for GM at the time, considering that the British Royal family usually drive British cars be they Rollers, Rovers or Daimler’s.

Mr. Murphy is to be congratulated for his magnificent restoration of The Duchess. It was a pleasure to speak with him occasionally early in his stewardship and to now observe the integrity of his efforts. As one of the Bradley sons who enjoyed our family’s ownership of The Duchess in the 50′s when my parents purchased The Duchess for a mere $2000, I have many pleasant memories of being granted permission to take The Duchess to many school proms and celebrations during our stewardship. Congratulations to RM Auctions & Sotheby’s as they are offering a splendid jewel to the Cadillac community.

Its very strange that people can’t take a look at something that was designed roughly 70 years ago and look at it as a thing of beauty and then dissecting it as if they no more, but it is true that we have access than they did 70 yrs ago but I’m not we are all the more intelligent.

What a beautiful Cadillac! I never heard of it either, must have been driven sparingly and sort of “under wraps” etc.. Too bad we couldn’t have seen a lot more photos of it, especially the inside. When I was in the USAF, our commanding officer had a black ’41 Cadillac convertible. It was his pride and joy, kept it absolutely impeccable at all times. I had a hopped up ’48 Ford convertible, what a contrast!! It was yellow with a French Roll top, lowered, skirts,WWWtires and LOUD pipes. Our barracks was only a couple hundred feet from our CO’s office and he would hear my Ford “blast off” about every morning, I guess it sort of irritated him. One day after we met and saluted, he wryly suggested that I ought to consider putting stock mufflers on my car so it was quiet like his Cadillac. I smiled and said ‘yes sir’, but I never did….

I see a whole lot of Buick styling in that car. I had a 1948 Cadillac model 75 once in 1968. It was very much taller, longer and had the running boards (stainless steel) outside of the doors. You had to step up into the car. It had jump seats and rear reading lights. The spare was in the trunk mounted vertically. the car was pretty massive and when you had to work on the rear universals you could just sit up next to to the differential. Tires were 7.50 X 16 – 8 ply truck tires. had a hydramatic transmission 6 volt electrical that could barely trun over the engine when it was warm. Parts were hard to come by even in 1967. I rebuilt the engine myself and the connecting rod bolts were really unique (required a special socket to remove and install them.
Wish I had ti now.
Ray

Love the absence of drip rails on the roof,headlight rims painted body color. Little details like that used by the top car builders of today also,just seems to make a cars line more smooth and flowing. Would of expected more gold plating then just the hood ornament on a car built for royalty.